Deputy Speaker, ACF Hail Federal Govt, Labour Over Suspension Of Strike

Deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Benjamin Kalu, has lauded the agreement reached by the federal government and the organised labour which led to the suspension of the planned nationwide strike action.

He said the development saved the nation from going into economic shocks, stressing that dialogue and reasoning prevailed.

Kalu made his feelings known in an opening remark at yesterday’s plenary session which he presided over.

The deputy speaker also commended the federal government for accepting to vote N100 billion for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for mass transit and 55,000 kits to kick start auto gas conversion programme amongst other issues.

Kalu who also felicitated with Nigerians on 63rd Independence anniversary celebrations of Nigeria as well the speaker of the House, Hon Abbas Tajudeen on his 58th birthday, revealed the readiness of the legislature to synergize with the executive towards optimizing the country’s oil production quota of 1.8 million barrels per day.

He said: “I wish to felicitate with the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Federal Government on the agreement to call off the strike. It shows that we have come to the age of reason, where dialogue and compromise work for our collective prosperity.”

Also yesterday, the apex northern sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) commended the truce reached by negotiations between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the nation’s joint umbrella body of labour unions, specifically the NLC and the TUC which resulted in the suspension of the planned strike.

ACF expressed happiness particularly with the representatives of the labour unions who were able to convince the FGN to pay attention to the plight of workers, and everyone one else in the country, arising from the combined deleterious impact, of the withdrawal of subsidy from the price of petroleum products and convergence of the official and parallel foreign exchange markets.

A statement issued by the forum and signed by the national publicity secretary, Prof T. A. Muhammad-Baba said both of the policies have compounded and placed in dire straits the far-from-satisfactory daily problems faced by average households in the country.

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“Almost overnight, the value of wages and incomes have continued to plummet and people increasingly face challenges with regards to feeding and nutrition, personal healthcare costs/financing, school fees, transportation, rent, shelter, and nearly all goods and services, affecting all Nigerians except  perhaps the less than top 5% of the population classified as the very rich, with the majority of the population continuing to see significant and alarming declines in the value of incomes and standards of living”.

ACF noted that these negative economic conditions are felt more in the northern states of Nigeria, being largely the most agrarian segment of the country with the lowest per capita incomes, poor scores in all indices of economic development and standard of living measures, etc. “For example, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Report, people considered poor in Nigeria numbered 133 million, out of which 86 million, or 65%, live in the North, who suffered over one quarter of all possible deprivations. In contrast, the South housed about 47 million or 35%. Rightly, ACF has been concerned about this alarming sobering state of affairs,” it said.

The group therefore congratulated the joint teams of the FGN and the NLC/TUC for finding that middle ground which averted the strike, even if for labour, the truce is for a period of four weeks only. ACF appreciated the FGN’s understanding and for rolling out measures to cushion the debilitating challenges in the economy.

ACF warned that a lot more remains to be done in the administration of economic policies in the country and in particular, ACF cautioned against the wholesale and unimaginative acceptance of out-of-context and largely discredited public policy solutions being preached by multilateral finance organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).